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Gabby had left their rooms.
He dragged himself up with effort as though his body had turned to metal. What was she doing up?
She had already shut down for the coma-like sleep of their kind when he returned from the shower. It was her way of avoiding him. He hadn’t pushed. If he’d learned anything from the past six centuries, it was patience.
Last night, what had happened… Felix should be delighted. Their connection, their need for each other, hadn’t diminished one bit in the time they were apart.
But he had lost control.
Felix prided himself on his control. It was what had kept him alive, kept his House intact, kept him sane all this time without Gabby. But, when her lips had touched his, it had snapped like the thin, worn-down wire it was.
She was the one thing he couldn’t resist.
His one weakness.
He didn’t reach out to ask where she was headed. He was aware of her movements ever since she entered Vegas’ perimeter. After putting on clothes, he followed her steps up to the roof.
Outside, Felix squinted against the blinding sunlight. Even though the Hunters had blown up one Tower, Vegas had several backup shield generators stocked to continue to power the shield. Still, he much preferred the night. His body was heavy as lead, his skin too warm, and the light stabbed painful little pinpricks into his eyes.
None of these inconveniences stopped him from following Gabby across the roof.
She was clad in a white dress with pink and yellow flowers, her shoulders and upper-back exposed to soak in the warmth. Her face was turned up toward the sun. Eyes closed, her pert mouth was curved in a blissful smile, and her golden tresses flowed down her back.
Her beauty struck him, deep in his core, in his heart.
When was the last time he’d seen her in the sun?
A long, long time ago.
It had been like this then, except he hadn’t been outside. He recalled the excruciating agony from his run in with her family. For once, they’d sprung a trap and he’d scraped by out of sheer, dumb luck. It was the closest he’d ever been to dying since he became a vampire.
He’d passed out after killing the Hunters. Somehow, she’d found him. She’d known what he was. How could she not, considering she was raised in a vampire Hunter family. Yet, instead of killing him, she’d dragged him into a cave to protect him against the sun.
To this day, he couldn’t believe she’d done it with her frail human body.
It was something he forgot easily and too often.
Her strength.
When he’d opened his eyes, he’d found two dead rabbits in the cave with him. He remembered thinking how ridiculous it was, a human feeding him rabbit blood.
621 years ago
She stood at the edge of the cave, her back lit from the sunlight. Just far enough away so he’d burn to a crisp before reaching her. He couldn’t make out her features, only the outline of a slender human female.
“Will you not eat?” Her musical voice did something strange to him. It reached into the deep yawning emptiness that’d been his life for as long as he could remember, and shone against the darkness.
He disliked it.
Struggling, Felix sat up, grimacing at the protest from his shoulder. Most of his wounds had healed in the last few hours, except for the hole in his shoulder where a Hunter had staked him and missed his heart.
“Who are you?” he asked.
A delicate shrug. He squinted. Though he couldn’t see her with the light behind her, a light that burned his retinas, he smelled her scent of fresh morning dew and lavender.
Calm settled over him.
“Come in. I will not hurt you,” he coaxed, using his vampire voice, the one that pulled prey to him.
